Senator Menendez Juror Asks Trial Judge, ‘What Is a Senator?

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Bloomberg

Senator Menendez Juror Asks Trial Judge, ‘What Is a Senator?’

By 

David Voreacos

 and Neil Weinberg

November 7, 2017, 3:33 PM CST Updated on November 7, 2017, 6:47 PM CST

·         Jury in corruption trial is in second day of deliberations

·         Menendez accused of helping donor in exchange for bribes

On their first full day of jury deliberations at the bribery trial of Senator Robert Menendez, a juror asked the judge a basic question:

What is a senator?U.S. District Judge William Walls declined to answer the question, and he refused that juror’s request for a transcript of Monday’s closing argument by Menendez’s attorney, Abbe Lowell. The panel had returned to the Newark, New Jersey, federal courthouse Tuesday after spending about 75 minutes deliberating the day before. Walls told jurors that they should rely on their individual and collective memories to determine how to define a senator.